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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28153992">Two Began, One Lost</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MBlair/pseuds/MBlair'>MBlair</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Star Wars Assorted Stories [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MANDALORIAN SEASON TWO FINALE, Gen, The Mandalorian (TV) Season 2 Spoilers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 17:26:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>707</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28153992</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MBlair/pseuds/MBlair</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In the shadow of the Empire, Luke Skywalker begins to rebuild the Jedi Order. What will come of his first two apprentices?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Luke Skywalker &amp; Ben Solo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Star Wars Assorted Stories [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2062563</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Star Wars Multishippers</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Two Began, One Lost</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So...yeah. I watched the season two finale of The Mandalorian and immediately wrote this. Might be out of character, but I honestly don't care. I wanted to express my feelings for the very end of this fantastic season and all the possibilities that come from it.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>In the beginning, there was not one but <em> two </em> young apprentices. </p><p> </p><p>“What is it,” a little boy asked his uncle, staring into the face of a small, green creature. To him, it looked like an oversized frog, but with oversized ears and eyes that somehow made it even cuter than one could imagine. The creature cooed up at the boy, eyes looking up at him with wonder as well, perhaps as though he had been waiting to meet him. </p><p>“He is my new Jedi apprentice,” his uncle, Luke Skywalker, replied with a sense of amusement. His nephew Ben had always been curious, sometimes to the point of what others could call rude, but never intentionally so. Perhaps as he grew, Ben would lose that sense of innate sense of talking that he inherited from his father, but Luke hoped, and somehow sensed, that he wouldn’t. </p><p>Ben nodded, sitting down across from the small creature, somehow in training to become a Jedi despite his apparent youth and diminutive size. It seemed odd to him that someone so small could already be in training, but something deep in Ben -- the Force perhaps -- said that his uncle’s words were true. “I’m Ben. What’s your name,” he asked, watching as he cooed again but then concentrated, making Ben blink once, twice, three times. </p><p>“Grogu. Your name is Grogu.” </p><p> </p><p>* * *</p><p>It didn’t take long, or perhaps it had already been <em> too </em> long, before Ben Solo joined Luke Skywalker and young Grogu to train as a Jedi. When Ben had finally come to join them, it was clear to the boy that his friend, the first apprentice, had changed in ways that no one would have expected. He still looked the same, far too young for his nearly sixty years and deceptively tiny, but something in his eyes spoke of sadness and burden, something that made both Luke and Ben feel like they had somehow made a grave mistake. </p><p>“Uncle… I mean, Master Skywalker. May I ask you a question,” Ben said softly one day after supper, both sitting beside the fire as Grogu wandered around just outside the small hut they had constructed, searching for small frogs or other animals for a small snack. </p><p>Luke looked to Ben, seeing not only an apprentice but also his <em> nephew. </em>A boy that was in his care to protect and care for just as much as someone here to train. It pained him to see the familial connection fall away to be replaced with what had to happen, the two of them existing as a Master and Apprentice alone. Shaking his head to bring himself back to the present when the cloud in Ben’s eyes began to return again, he nodded. “Yes, Ben. Please ask your question.” </p><p>“Why does Grogu look so sad?” </p><p>Luke sighed, looking out at Grogu outside, sitting and watching the moon. Though it had been years now since the little apprentice came away with him, the memory of the man he had been taken from, the one who had seemed as close as family, came back full force. </p><p>“He had a family once, a father… To be trained, I had to take Grogu from him,” he said, sighing. “It is what I most regret about beginning the Order again, separating children from those that love them, but...it is a necessary evil to prevent the galaxy from falling into chaos again. To keep everyone safe.” </p><p> </p><p>* * *</p><p>In the beginning, there were <em> two </em>apprentices… </p><p>At the end, only one remained. </p><p> </p><p>“I don’t want to hurt you, Grogu. Go,” Ben said as he ran from the flames of what had been once the secluded Jedi academy. He knew there were others after him, seeking to end the one who they thought had brought so much chaos and bloodshed to their home. To them, he was the killer, the monster, but Ben knew that he hadn’t caused this. Not all of it. </p><p>As he turned back one last time before running away, leaving the life of Ben Solo behind and forging a new path, the two shared a look. One last look between friends, between <em> family </em>, two apprentices that came together for a single purpose, but now had to part ways. </p><p>
  <em> “Goodbye my friend. Be safe.” </em>
</p>
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